Atlantis

Chapter Eighteen

"We need someone inside the mountain. Someone we trust to get to the radio and communicate with us." Clarke said. "I've given Bellamy my map of the inside. Lincoln can get him in, but from there, Bellamy's on his own." 

"I'm sending Faye with him." Lexa said, her voice showed no room for questions.

"The mountain men know what she looks like, it's too risky."

"She is one of my best warrior. Either she goes, or no one goes." Lexa said. 

"Fine. They leave now." 

Clarke left the room with everyone else, leaving only Faye and Lexa. 

"I know it is not ideal." Lexa said before Faye could leave. "But I need someone I can trust."

"I can't go." Faye said.

"I need you to. I promise I will get you and the rest of our people out as soon as I can." Lexa said.

"And Clarke's people? She trusts you now." Faye reminded her. 

"I will deal with Clarke. I know I can't ask you to go, and I don't want to have to command you... but I need you." 

When Faye left she went straight to her tent. She took the dagger she had given away long ago. She cut through her hair until it reached just under her ears. The only thing she could do after that to mask herself, was cover herself in mud.

- - -

Lincoln removed his spear from the deer and cut through his stomach. Letting the blood cover his hands, he spread it across his jaw and neck.

"Okay." Bellamy knelt next to him and Faye. "So we make it to the intake door without any of the real Reapers seeing us. What happens then?" 

"I kill everyone, and you two slip inside. Limestone." He took it from Bellamy and painted three white streaks on his face. "Let's go. We have a lot of ground to cover before dark.

"I need to know what happened after the intake door." 

"They remove your clothes. Blast you with boiling water, then douse you with something that burns even worse. And then we were sorted. The others were tagged "harvest." I was tagged "Cerberus," turned into a Reaper."

"Cerberus." Bellamy repeated. "Three-headed dog that guards the underworld." Lincoln and Faye both looked at Bellamy. "My mom read mythology to us all the time. Octavia loved it. You're good for her. You made her strong."

"She was already strong." Lincoln said.

"Hey, I need to ask you something." Bellamy said, stopping his pace. Faye rolled her eyes and turned to find Lincoln looking back at Bellamy. "You protected my sister before you even knew her. Why?"

"We don't have time for this." Faye said.

"When I was a boy... I saw a ship fall from the sky. Like ravens. The man inside was hurt, his body broken. I couldn't get him out."

"Suicide by Earth. I heard the story in the guard. I just didn't know they were true." Bellamy said.

"I brought him food, water. I didn't speak the enemy's language yet. So I couldn't understand him, but I wanted to. So on the third day, I told my father. He made me kill him. The world's been trying to turn me into a monster for as long as I can remember. Let's keep moving."

Faye remembered those days. Lincoln told her about it everyday he could. After he killed the man, he spent days with her family. 

Faye was relieved when they finally started moving again, until Bellamy stopped them. "Wait."

"The parking garage where we found you... it's north, that way."

"There's a mine entrance closer to where the Reapers hand us over. We go into the underworld when we have to. Not before."

"A little dramatic for you." Faye said quietly to Lincoln when they started moving again.

They kept going until Bellamy stopped to check the map. It was one of the only times they stopped. 

"Let me see it." LIncoln said to Faye. She held out her arm where a small bump stuck out. A needle was placed just under her skin, a way to unlock the cages once they were inside. Lincoln took water and dumped it over her arm.

Faye winced as if washed over her skin. 

"You shouldn't have to go back there." Lincoln said. 

"He'd get himself killed before he could even get out of the harvest chamber." Faye said, referring to Bellamy. "The commander needs someone she trusts, someone who knows how to escape." 

"The mountain has many eyes between here and the tunnels." Lincoln said. "From now on, details must be exact." Lincoln said

Bellamy soon walked over to them. "What if we run into real Reapers?" Bellamy asked. "Wouldn't they wonder where you've been?"

"All they see is the Red. Once you're taken, nothing else matters. Just how you'll get more."

"How much do you remember from when you were on it?" Bellamy asked.

"Everything."

Faye stood. She didn't like hearing Lincoln talk about being a Reaper. She knew he didn't like talking about it.

"Turn around."

They ran through the woods. Every detail was as it was supposed to be. 

"Come on." Bellamy said. Faye had stopped just before the tunnel. She had suddenly grown a fear of darkness, and what waits in the darkness.

"Faye, oso souda dula op disha." Lincoln said, trying to get her to move. "The weapon is my escape and the fear is my fuel." Lincoln said, letting her finish the words she told him constantly as children. It was the only way she knew to help him through training. 

- - -

"Why are we stopping?" Bellamy asked Lincoln. Faye and Bellamy followed his eyes to the empty bottle on the ground.

Lincoln crushed the glass under his foot.

"You okay?"

"As soon as they open the intake doors, we attack. Do not let it close. Once they're all dead, you go in. I'll make it look like you two escaped. Once you're inside--"

"I know."

Lights came from down the tunnel along with shouting. "Another raider party."

"What are you doing?" Bellamy asked when Lincoln went to untie their hands.

"We have to go back."

"Go back? No way."

"Three, maybe four. We can fight our way through." Lincoln said.

"We'll never get a better chance." Bellamy said.

"I thought I could do this, but I can't. Okay? It's over." 

"Lincoln, it's not." Faye insisted. 

"She's right. We can join them." Lincoln shook his head. "Listen to me. When they bring out the Red, you grab it, and you run like hell. The Reapers will go nuts, the Grounders will run and Mountain Men will have to deal with it. No one will be looking for two Grounders running into the mountain." 

"I said no." Lincoln said, throwing Bellamy to the ground.

"Fight back. They'll think we're trying to escape." Lincoln quickly overpowered Bellamy and held a knife to his throat.

"This one tried to wander off." Lincoln told the Reapers. "He's mine."

"Put them on the log."

Faye and Bellamy were brought to the middle of the raider party. Bellamy watched an exchanged look go between Faye and Lincoln. Faye's quick breathing slowly went back to normal as they put a blindfold over her eyes. 

Once they did the same to Bellamy, they both were completely defensely and taken by real Reapers.